Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (12 May 1725 – 18 November 1785), known as ''le Gros'' (the Fat), was a French royal of a cadet branch of the
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. A br ...
. The
First Prince of the Blood after 1752, he was the most senior male at the French court after the immediate royal family. He was the father of ''
Philippe Égalité''. He greatly augmented the already huge wealth of the
House of Orléans
The 4th House of Orléans (), sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans () to distinguish it, is the fourth holder of a surname previously used by several branches of the House of France, Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimat ...
.
Biography
Louis Philippe d'Orléans was born at the
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of ÃŽle-de-France, ÃŽle-de-France region in Franc ...
on 12 May 1725. As the only son of
Louis, Duke of Orléans, and his wife
Johanna of Baden-Baden, he was titled
Duke of Chartres at birth. He was one of two children; his younger sister
Louise Marie d'Orléans died at Saint-Cloud in 1728 aged a year and eight months. Louis Philippe's father, who had been devoted to his wife, became a recluse and pious as he grew older.
Louise Marie was known as ''
Mademoiselle'' in her short lifetime.
Louis Philippe was hardly fifteen when he and his young cousin
Princess Henriette of France (1727–1752), the second daughter of King
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
and Queen
Marie Leszczyńska, fell in love.
After considering the possibility of such a marriage, Louis XV and his chief minister,
Cardinal Fleury, decided against it because this union would have brought the House of Orléans too close to the throne.
First marriage
In 1743, his paternal grandmother,
Françoise-Marie de Bourbon the formidable Dowager Duchess of Orléans, and
Louise Élisabeth, Dowager Princess of Conti arranged his marriage to his seventeen-year-old cousin,
Louise Henriette de Bourbon (1726–1759), a member of the
House of Bourbon-Conti, another cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. It was hoped this marriage would close a fifty-year-old family rift.
Louis Philippe's father, ''Louis le Pieux'', gave his consent to the union in the belief that because the young bride had been brought up in a convent, she would be a paragon of virtue and as such be an ideal wife for his son. Louise Henriette was the only daughter of
Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti and the earlier mentioned
Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon. Louise Henriette was a Princess of the Blood (''
princesse du sang'') and was known at court as ''Mademoiselle de Conti''.
The couple was married on 17 December 1743 in the
chapel of the Palace of Versailles.
After a few months of a passion that surprised everyone at court, the couple started to drift apart as the young Duchess of Chartres began to lead a scandalous life. This caused her father-in-law to refuse to recognise the legitimacy of his grandchildren.
The couple had three children:
*A daughter (
Château de Saint-Cloud, 12 or 13 July 1745 – 14 December 1745, Château de Saint-Cloud);
*
Louis ''Philippe'' Joseph d'Orléans (
Château de Saint-Cloud, 13 April 1747, – 6 November 1793, ''
Place de la Révolution
The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was the s ...
'', Paris (executed)), who succeeded his father as Duke of Orléans in 1785,
**
Duke of Montpensier at birth,
**Duke of Chartres at the death of his grandfather in 1752,
**Duke of Orléans at the death of his father in 1785,
**known as ''Philippe-Égalité'' during the
French Revolution;
**possible husband for
Princess Maria Kunigunde of Saxony (1740–1826), youngest daughter of
Augustus III of Poland
Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...
;
**married
Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, ''Mademoiselle de Penthièvre'', and was the father of Louis-Philippe King of the French;
*
Louise Marie Thérèse ''Bathilde'' d'Orléans (Château de Saint-Cloud, 9 July 1750 – 10 January 1822, Paris), the last ''princesse de Condé'',
**possible bride for
Ferdinand, Duke of Parma,
**married
Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé
Louis may refer to:
People
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
Other uses
* Louis (coin), a French coin
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
* ...
,
**known as ''Mademoiselle'' at court prior to her marriage,
**known as ''Citoyenne Vérité'' during the French Revolution.
Because he knew that Louise Henriette was having affairs during her marriage and felt that Louis Philippe was physically incapable of having children, Louise Henriette's father-in-law refused to acknowledge any of her children as legitimate.
In 1756, the Swiss physician and advocate for inoculation against smallpox
Théodore Tronchin was invited to the court of Louis XV at the request of Louis Philippe, who was in favour of inoculation. Louis Philippe wanted to have both his children inoculated in order to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the methods, but his wife Louise Henriette was against it. However, after Louis Philippe promised not to have the children inoculated without her consent, she agreed to the procedure, and Philippe and Bathilde were inoculated on March 12, 1756.
Military achievements and succession as Duke of Orléans
Serving with the French armies in the
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...
, he distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1742, 1743 and 1744, and at the
Battle of Fontenoy
The Battle of Fontenoy took place on 11 May 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession, near Tournai, then in the Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Maurice, comte de Saxe, Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Ar ...
in 1745. After the death of his first wife, he retired to his
château at Bagnolet, where he occupied his time with theatrical performances and the society of intellectuals. Louise Henriette accompanied her husband to the field despite being pregnant.
Upon the death of his father in Paris on 4 August 1752, Louis Philippe became
Duke of Orléans and head of the
House of Orléans
The 4th House of Orléans (), sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans () to distinguish it, is the fourth holder of a surname previously used by several branches of the House of France, Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimat ...
. He also became
First Prince of the Blood,
Duke of Valois,
Nemours and
Montpensier. His father was buried at the
Abbaye-Sainte-Geneviève where he had lived since 1740.
Étiennette Le Marquis
After the death of Louise Henriette on 9 February 1759 at the
Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...
, the Orléans residence in Paris, Louis Philippe took as his mistress
Étiennette Le Marquis, a former dancer who liked to act in comedy plays, and who introduced him into the world of the theater. At that time, the ''château de Bagnolet'', which he had inherited from his father, became his favorite residence. Louis Philippe had three children with Étiennette; they were raised under the care of the Orléans family:
*Louis Étienne d'Orléans, (21 January 1759 – 24 July 1825), Count-abbé of Saint-Phar
*Louis Philippe d'Orléans, (7 July 1761 – 13 June 1829), Count-abbé of Saint-Albin,
*Marie Étiennette Perrine d'Auvilliers, (7 July 1761 -), who married François-Constantin, Count of Brossard, a dragoon regiment officer.
In 1769, Louis Philippe sold Bagnolet and bought the
Château du Raincy, located less than ten miles east from the center of Paris. The same year, his son
Louis Philippe, married
Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, heiress to the fortune of her father, the
Duke of Penthièvre. Louis Philippe had wanted his son to have a prestigious marriage with the Polish princess
Maria Kunigunde, the youngest daughter of
Augustus III of Poland
Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...
and
Maria Josepha, Archduchess of Austria. Princess Maria Kunigunde was the sister of the deceased
Dauphine of France
The dauphine of France (, also , ) was the wife of the dauphin of France (the heir apparent to the French throne). The position was analogous to a crown princess (the wife of a crown prince and heir apparent to a throne).
List of dauphines of F ...
(1731–1767), mother of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
.
It was King Louis XV who opposed this marriage on the pretence that the princess was too old for the young
Duke of Chartres. This caused the Duke of Penthièvre to ask if the Duke of Orléans if he would allow a union with the Orléans family. Louis Philippe is said to have rejected the idea of his son marrying Mademoiselle de Penthièvre due to her ''bastard race''; this is an irony in itself due to Louis Philippe and the Duke of Penthièvre were both descended from two daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.
Second marriage
In spite of his liaison with Étiennette, Louis Philippe had several other mistresses until he met, in July 1766,
Charlotte Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou, ''Madame de Montesson'', a witty but married twenty-eight-year-old. After the death of the Marquis of Montesson in 1769, Louis Philippe tried to obtain
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
's authorisation to marry the young widow. Finally, in December 1772, the King gave his consent on the condition that the Marquise of Montesson would never become Duchess of Orléans or succeed to any other Orléans titles. In addition, the couple was to live a quiet life away from the court. The
morganatic marriage
Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...
took place on 23 April 1773 "''dans la plus stricte intimité''". As a wedding gift, the Duke of Orléans gave his new wife the ''château de Sainte-Assise'' at
Seine-Port, in today's
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the ÃŽle-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...
department of France.
Later life
Louis XV had added to the appanage of the House of Orléans the ''hôtel de Grand-Ferrare'' in
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...
(1740), the county of
Soissons
Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital ...
(1751), the seigneuries of
La Fère,
Marle,
Ham, Saint-Gobain, the ''
Canal de l'Ourcq'' and the ''hôtel Duplessis-Châtillon'' in Paris (1766).
In 1773, Orléans added to his residences a magnificent hôtel built at
Chaussée d'Antin, the new elegant quarter of Paris.
In 1780, Louis Philippe gave his son the
Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...
, a gift that was to mark their reconciliation after the rift provoked by the Duke's second marriage.
In Sainte-Assise,
du Raincy and Paris, the couple received nobles, intellectuals, playwrights, scientists, such as the
Duchess of Lauzun, the
Countess of Egmont, the
Marquis of Lusignan, the
Marquis of Osmond, the mathematician
d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...
, the German writer
Melchior Grimm
Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm (26 September 172319 December 1807) was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''. ...
, the mathematician and astronomer
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French polymath, a scholar whose work has been instrumental in the fields of physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and philosophy. He summariz ...
, the chemist
Claude Louis Berthollet
Claude Louis Berthollet (, 9 December 1748 – 6 November 1822) was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to the theory of chemical equilibria via the ...
, the composers
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (; – ) was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813).
He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical gen ...
,
André Grétry,
Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George(s) (; ; 25 December 17459 June 1799) was a French violinist, conducting, conductor, composer and soldier. Moreover, he demonstrated excellence as a Fencing, fencer, an athlete and an accomplished dancer. ...
,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
, and playwright
Louis Carrogis Carmontelle. The couple also gave theatrical presentations, some of which were written by the Marquise of Montesson.
In February 1785, upon the insistence of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
, and with some help from
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry (; 28 August 1744 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being ...
, the Duke of Orléans sold the magnificent
Château de Saint-Cloud, which had been in the Orléans family's possession since 1658, to Queen
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
, for six million
livres, a much reduced price than the original cost. The beautiful château had been ignored after the death of his wife Louise Henriette.
Surrounded by all the members of his immediate family, even his three children by Etiennette Le Marquis, Louis-Philippe died on 18 November 1785, at Sainte-Assise at the age of sixty.
[ib. Dufresne, p. 211.]
He was buried at the
Val-de-Grâce convent in Paris, built by his ancestor
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria (; ; born Ana MarÃa Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII. She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown ...
to celebrate the birth of Louis XIV of France, Louis Philippe's great grandfather.
Ancestors
References
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philippe, Louis, Duke Of Orleansi
1725 births
1785 deaths
Royalty from Versailles
French soldiers
House of Orléans
Dukes of Chartres
Dukes of Nemours
Dukes of Montpensier
Dukes of Valois
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
18th-century French people
Burials at Val-de-Grâce (church)
18th-century peers of France